Sunday, 22 June 2008

I know, for most of you, summer is probably already here, but in England it's coming...and sometimes it never even makes it! I'm optimistic, though, that it will come this year. Everything is green, blossoming, and beautiful! It's even more beautiful to me, because we're moving in 3 days, so you won't see me on here for a couple of weeks.

I thought I'd share some photos from some of the fun we've had in the last couple of weeks. The top one is from Cornwall. Chloe was stropping, so she's not in the photo. It's not a good idea to strop on the edge of a cliff, but she never chooses the right moment! Cornwall has some of the most dramatic, beautiful coastine I have ever seen in my life. It's the English equivalent of the dramatic coastline of Lake Powell, just completely different! Green vs. brown!

The bottom photo is from the grounds of a manor house near our home. It's called Bowood. We have season tickets to it. The grounds and home are gorgeous, and there is a big adventure playgound, where Sophia particularly loves to go down the death slide...when she's feeling brave. We spend most of our free days there.

Anyway, I look forward to getting back on here and seeing what you're all up to, as soon as my move is over and we're settled in! Take care.

Friday, 20 June 2008

Lot's of people are asking me about my batty neighbour, so I feel it's time to fill you in a bit. We live in a 200 year old terraced house, at the moment. As a house I love it! It has some really cool old features, and I love the historical documents that we have of it, and I love just thinking about the people who lived here throughout history and what they wore. It's also only a 5 minute walk from the shops in the town centre. The houses on our street are all Georgian style homes, in the same style as houses in Bath. They're just really cool! We also, bought this house b/c it was a lot bigger than new homes, or ones that were semi-detached, and we thought we found a place where we could live for a long time.

Then, Mary moved in right next door to us, just a week before we moved in. At first, we thought she was nice, a bit strange, but nice. The bad behaviour started when James was about 3 months old. It had been a hard day with the children. They were screaming and crying, and throwing tantrums all day. Simon had been away the night before, and I was at my wits end. Mary had decided that when the children were loud, the best thing to do was to bang, as hard as possible, on the walls. So, all that day I had her banging and banging, along with all that my children were up to. Simon got home that night and we were having the usual struggles in getting the children to bed, when Mary came to the door to tell us how loud we were that day, and all Simon said to her was, "I don't know what else we can do, other than lock them up!" Well, from this point on, Mary would no longer talk to us, she just kept sending letters through the post, accusing us of being irresponsible parents, saying that she had spoken to the police about us and that she was taking their advice. She also accused us of harming her dog and sending us a vet bill for £500, and a bill of £2,000 for the fence. It's hard to really give you an idea of how horrible this all was, without posting the letters, but it was all the time. She also continued her banging on the walls and shouting at us through the walls. In all this, there was so much we were tempted to do, but we refrained and turned to the Lord with our concerns.

Anyway, we sold our house, and now we've bought a detached one in the nicest neighbourhood in Chippenham (to us, anyway). Teachers at Sophia's school keep informing me of all the children who live on the street and who will live around the corner of us and everyone seems so happy that we'll be moving there, and we can't wait! In some ways, I'm really grateful that Mary has turned out to be the neighbour that she was b/c we wouldn't have moved from our house, but there is so many disadvantages to family life at it. There's no place to park cars and it can be a real hassle if you can't find a car park. Also, it's a town street, so there's no playing in the road or riding their bikes around for the children. We just wanted a big house, and this was the best way to get one. If Mary hadn't turned out to be a nightmare, we wouldn't have been able to afford a detached house, either. So, in the end, her behaviour has been a real blessing!

We've learned alot about faith, too. The housing market here is so bad at the moment. There's about 6 houses on our street, and nothing has been moving. We decided that we had to be completely honest about the house sell b/c we didn't want anyone with young children moving into the house and having the same problems as we did, so we turned in all of Mary's nasty letters to the solicitors, so the people buying our house saw them all. We were worried that no one would ever buy the house once they saw the letters. It just goes to show what being honest and following the Lord can do b/c we not only sold our house, but it was the only on the street to sell and it sold in just a few weeks! To us, it was a miracle. People keep asking me how we sold our house, a number of who are trying to sell theirs, and I just tell them we did a lot of praying, and they new all about how we turned the letters in too.

The fact of the matter is that the Lord loves us and wants us to be happy. He has blessings waiting for us, if we only turn to Him and have faith. I hope I will never doubt, again.

Tuesday, 17 June 2008

Sophia is taking ballet. It's all very serious here in England. She doesn't have any performances, only exams. Parents are only allowed to come in to the last lesson of each term and watch the little ballerina's do their thing. It was special to get to watch Sophia for the first time last term. She was really enjoying herself. She looked all the part, and I thought her posture was amazing!

She did have some troubles keeping her outfit in place. At one point she got all tangled up in it. She wouldn't be 'Sophia' without some sort of hoopla!

James sleeps with us. It's not the situation we want, but it's all that can work until we move. It usually starts at about 3:00am, when James cries and Simon brings him into bed with me, which means Simon goes down to the couch. This is all fine and dandy, and it's not the end of the world, but we don't believe in sharing our bed! We've never had this problem before, but our current situation consists of a batty neighbour who bangs on the walls whenever she hears the children cry. That's another situation though, and we've sorted it out because we'll be moving next Thursday, so I don't really need to go on about it anymore.

Anyway, last night was another one of those nights and instead of lying in bed, wondering why I can't sleep, I decided to go and mess around on the computer. At last, I've been able to get this blog up and running...it's been in the process for about 6 months now! Another thing I had fun with is making temple pictures with over-lying wedding photos. I was just messing around, but I'm really pleased with the results! This is especially nice for me because I was married in England, where you have a civil wedding ceremony in the church and your temple sealing on the same day. I was married in Exeter, Devon, which is a 3 1/2 hour drive to the temple, and after all the shannanigans were over in Exeter, we got to the temple too late to take a decent picture.

It's a bit of fun, but I really love it! My favourite is the kissing one!

Wednesday, 11 June 2008

Just to let you guys know, this page is under construction. I have no time, at the moment, to post anything. They keep me busy over here in England, and I'm moving on the 26th, so I'm just in packing mode at the moment. I'll let you know when my blog is up and running. It's up, but not running! Love ya!

Simon, Simon, Simon

Jaimers

Sof Sof

Cuddle

Jamesy Boy

Lucy Lou

Simon and I met at the Young Single Adult ward in London, where we were both studying at very different Universities! I pretty much stalked Simon and one day he, finally, came around to the idea that I was worthy of his love! I'm glad it all worked out because I have the happiest life I could have ever envisioned in England, although I miss my family in America. We have 4 fantastic children!